Amoxcuiliuhtoc an mocuic an quizozoa huehuetitlan” Your chants are to be found Within the book of paintings And ought to be displayed by the drums.

Xochipilli: prince of medicine flowers and god of love and music from the aztec culture.

When the Spanish conquest took place over Mexico, the Mayas as a culture were already declining, the Aztecs were at the peak of their development, but nevertheless, both civilizations had a highly complex and sophisticated cosmogonic set of ritual and ceremonies regulated by different calendars (the Mayas alone were simultaneously following 17 calendared paths)… so life as such was an endless necklace of rituals and sacred celebrations from birth to death. At the core of all this, music was the integrating element that served to weave chantings, dances, poetry, mimicry, fantastic finery and gear, paintings and images. Underneath all this, layers upon layers of symbolic meanings were the establishing factors that gave shape to ritual forms. Regulated relationships with their surroundings marked the different levels of initiations, organized ranks and hierarchies, and established the set of commitments to their gods.

There were no spectators, according to status, occupation and skill, everyone played a part in this sacred puzzle, which demanded a lifelong commitment, and a string of duties attached to some magical calendar. Once the Spanish overcame all resistance, soldiers and priests started campaign to destroy all traces of their religion; idols, temples, musical instruments, books, images and all symbols were smashed to pieces and burned to ashes. Not too long after this, time after time the realization of their folly started to become evident. To Christianise Indians they had to understand their ancient and very complex system of beliefs and they had nothing to work on. All too often the recently converted groups of Indians fooled them. By a crown mandate a delegation of priest scholars were sent from Spain to research, investigate and rebuild as much as possible of what had been destroyed in the “new world”.

Around the 1530s the church realized that the task of completely uprooting Indian sacred traditions was close to impossible, an agreement was reached to allow dancing, singing and playing by converted Indians in the church patios. This is a practice that has continued until our present times and it has helped to preserve many of those ancient ritual dances. But one of the conditions imposed by the clerical authorities to allow the dancing was that there would be no drumming, so the dancers took up Spanish (Moorish) mandolins. Now days this these dancers are named concheros and their rituals and chanting are very mixed with catholic rituals, beliefs and symbols but still preserving many of their ancient elements. In the early 1900s dissatisfaction with the church and a growing consciousness of their own roots, led to the flowering of a “new” movement dedicated to rescue “the real thing”. So creativity, commitment and practice separated from Catholicism motivated the forming of ritual-dance groups discarding mandolins and other string instruments and taking back the long forgotten old drums, trumpets and rattles.

Xochipilli in a clear state of ecstasy related to a ceremonial consumption of natural entheogenics.

With the knowledge of the ancient drum patterns and orchestration lost, they did the simplest thing, and imitated the sound of the dancing steps in a mono-rhythmic fashion. All this was done mostly by people trying to rescue the ancient ceremonial line of rituals, not by musicians. Things being that way, dances and ritual designs went through an amazingly rapid and beautiful evolution; music and chanting somehow lagged behind. In the beginning of the 70s there came a generation of young Mexican musicians who were dedicated to investigate and research of what they called Pre-Hispanic music. This is a movement that has been giving fruits to a music based on little theoretical information and lots of creativity although new information keeps popping up to further enrich the Mexican “new” culture of ancient sounds.

Luix Saldaña is a pioneer of the DCF movement in Mexico, a musician, composer and instrument builder.

Much of the information we have today stems from these sources. Fortunately these cultures and the ones before them such as Toltecs, Olmecs, Mazatecs, Xochicalcas and many others were incredible builders that left behind more cities, temples and ceremonial centers than the Spanish could destroy, and that is how many of the ritual forms are permanently engraved in steles, pyramids, temples, ceramic works and murals. And so, Mexicans were able to preserve dance, poetry, images and musical instruments. But they lost the information on how to orchestrate those beautiful instruments, amongst some of which we find:• Teponaztle (two to four slits log drum)• Huehuetl and Tlapanhuehuetl (waist high cylindrical drums)• Yopihuehuetl (frame drum)• Atecocoli (shell-trumpet)• Tlacocoli (gourd-trumpet)• Nahuatl (flutes and ocarinas)• Ayacaxtli (rattle)• Omichicahuaztli (scraper)• Chayehuari (ankle rattles)• Chapareque (a four stringed bow using the mouth as the resonator)• Chicahuaztli (a rattle, which was a symbol of fertility that was carried by those deities).• A whole array of rich wind instruments, mostly made out of clay, bone, stones and metal.